Verizon Wireless, the largest cellphone carrier in the U.S., says it will sell a Nokia phone for the first time in years, lending support to the embattled Finnish company's turnaround effort.

Verizon says it will sell the Lumia 822, an exclusive model that's part of Nokia's lineup of smartphones based on Microsoft's Windows software. Verizon didn't provide the launch date or price. Verizon rivals AT&T and T-Mobile USA started selling Lumia phones earlier this year.

Even though it was, until recently, the world's largest maker of phones, Nokia has been largely absent from the U.S. market for many years. Its early smartphones never caught on in the country, and it was virtually shut out once the iPhone launched in 2007.